This article is a form of interactive written map for those who are interested in the dying occult art of planeswalking. Planar layer realms theory can be resumed by looking at universal reality as a model, a metaphorical onion constituted of many different layers of energy, of veiled fabrics separated with by a fluid layers of mana without information. One layer over another with the veiled tapestry, the fabric of reality, as a backdrop reveals a interlocked, holistic, and functional panorama of our multiverse. From the smallest quantum particle to the fiery stars hurdling through the firmament in our night skies, everything is interconnected. That being said, this state of interconnection allows for us noble thinking creatures to ascend, to grow into our awareness of the universes within universes all around us at any given time. Sometimes nothing but a few microns or less separating us from each other. The following is one of the most practical ways to do so. Planeswalking has two main steps. The first can be achieved through many different methods. The main of these I would simply call tuning for a lack of a better term, basically pushing thru your conscious filters with your perception and senses, expanding the limits of your personal auric bubble into listening to the planar energy static to get visions, insights and glimpse from the different planes as though they were channels your mind is tapping into. Travel is the next step encompassing many types of travel techniques including the most know such as astral projection and spiritwalking. Some such planes can only be reached through very deep meditation, altered states of consciousness including ritual use of certain herbs, plants and other such unrecommended tools, lucid trancing, lucid dreaming, ethereal travel and so on. There is already a plethora of interesting literature, websites, ebooks and other sources of information out there on these subjects so here I will confine the contents of the article to a short description of each location in this strange and as of yet incomplete map of my own cosmological explorations. I would like for it to serve other explorers of the worlds within and without who have the courage to push the limits of magick and the reach of their own mind.

Material plane

The planes are all intermingled to some degree. The ground floor is almost always the material plane. The material plane is the reality we all known. The one in which we exist in our vanilla, normal, nine to five lives through our 5 senses, our conscious filters, our moods, our experiences. The experiences of the flesh, the sensations and pleasures all begin here. Dancing, meditation, sacred sexuality, those are all other means by which one can begin exploring the inner mythos within ourselves as well as the planar layers and the outer worlds without. Elements from this plane will be described using quantum physics, magick, cosmology, chaos mathematics, and metaphysics. The material plane is a host to dense information clusters such as closed quantum systems(i.e. objects), loose clusters of the same defined as open quantum systems(i.e. from the smallest microbe to the higher evolved forms of life like gorillas and humans) as well as fluid patterns or transient quantum systems(i,e, liquids, energy and forces) and free-floating mana, the breath of life of reality. The aforementioned definition are just ways of differentiating the living patterns from the static. Space here can be measured in distances and angles. Time seems to exist over a linear timeline or as a set of parallel worlds and timelines. The fabric of reality, an interwoven tapestry of mana lines and folded dimensions(string theory), is the connecting threads behind the universe we see and feel. These are the connecting points for all the other planar layers and the vector points which explains away the concussive universe theory(to be explained away in a subsequent article). Our perception, the limited, scientifically observed, range of our 5 senses ,and our way of interpreting the patterns from a bunch of variables makes us prone to blindness, losing the proverbial forest for the trees. Choices, actions, events, manifestation, probability fields, morphic fields, as well as synchronicity patterns lead into the next planar layer.

Astral plane

The astral planes are also called the plane of formation. Ideas, concepts, paradigms, memes, social constructs, philosophies, knowledge all exist within the astral layers. Different kinds of spirit being, egregores, tulpas, created servitors, mascots, story and manga characters, cartoons, and ideologues among others populate and share coherent existences these layer realms. Time here is very subjective. It can seem to pass faster or slower depending where one is visiting. It is not linear here either. Instead it follows the shadow time bubble river model. In this metaphor, the perceptual model of our theoretical subject, his/her/their point of view situated in time, is the present. It is represented metaphorically by a raft in the middle of a river with twin currents running in opposite directions of an infinite horizons. The way back is the past. In other words, our vision of our past composed of memories, regrets, trauma, successes and other perceived categorizations. The way forward is the future. That is our vision of the future, composed of hopes, dreams, ambitions, projects, plans, and promises. The same is also true of space which does not behave like in the material plane. All that is necessary to move from one place to another in the astral plane is to close our eyes, to think, to visualize the place, and we appear there once we open our eyes. Just as there are infinite amounts of numbers between 0 and 1, there infinite realms within the boundaries of each planar layer. An astral oasis can be as real as a secret realm we access through meditation or lucid trancing to escape the pains of living or to feel distraction and pleasure. Deja-vu, insights, visualized places, astral constructs and astral sacred spaces can all be felt and experienced here with our tethered astral bodies acting as a bridge to the physical body and to our consciousness. Innercosms, realms within our own imaginations, empowered by our creativity, stored within our psyches, can also be explored through astral travel. A deeper state of introversion such as lucid dreaming or REM sleep leads to our next set of planar layers.

Maya, The Dream realms, The Nightmare realms

Dream and nightmare worlds exist on their own planar frequency. That which separates dreams from nightmares is a thin variation in the aforementioned frequency scheme which we can learn to distinguish by increasing our auric bubble acuity when practicing "tuning". The yellow brick road, Atlantis, Shangri-la, Agartha, Eldorado, the Far West from the movies, outer space, are but some of the landscapes one will find here in Maya. Unicorns, talking snowmen, Santa's elves, our favorite video game heros as well as a variety of other "good cameos" can be found here. Ghoulies, beasties, monsters under the bed, things that go bump in the night, find their place here as well. We naturally visit Maya when we enter a state of REM sleep. Maya can alternatively be entered through lucid trancing, breath counting, deep concentrated object visualization, and sacred herbs which enable us to enter into altered states of consciousness. There are privileged dreamers who use lucid trancing to the point of becoming masters of their dreams, reality hackers extraordinaire, who paint entire dreamworlds while in Maya. Just as the common lesser dreamer is a spectator or an unwilling participant in his/her/their own dream life. Mana here takes on the appearance of a misty, pinkish white colored form of astral matter that can be referred to as dreamstuff, a term coined from a sandman magickian. There is but a slight difference in composition and resonance between dreamstuff and nightmarestuff. A master lucid dreamer can conjure anything from a solid object to a bolt of lightning to an imaginary friend even an entire gothic castle can be created while within the bounds of Maya. These planar sub-layers of the astral planes also have other uses for the advanced magus. Entry into another sleeping target's dreamscapes, dreamspells(astral magicks that need to be cast from within a dream), predicting the future, revealing the past, detaching a dream parasite like a night terror, as well as visiting certain realms which can only be reached within Maya; these things can all be achieved through dream magicks.

The Bedlam realms

The Bedlam realms are only mentioned in passing. This planar sub-layer of Maya is composed of the fairytale and storybook realms, the children's dream realms and the make believe realms. Bedlam is a place of wonders. Here, every wish you ever made from your birth to your eventual tragic demise has come true. Here, you are perfect. You are everything you've ever wanted to be. An athlete, a superhero, a wizard, a scientist, a doctor, an astronaut, everything is possible. The only obvious reason why such a layer is even mentioned in a metadimensional physics article about the different planes of existence are the inherent uses a creative, wise, magickian may find here. It is the safest place to proof test your latest spellcrafted enchantment without having it blow up in your face because you forgot one key details. It is the best place imaginable to cast the most potent wishcrafted spell you can think of by creating an interactive astral temple from the dreamstuff of the Bedlam realms. For Ddlg relationships, magus daddies can experience extraordinary journeys with their littles by creating a mindlink using hypnosis or meditation to synchronize his/her/their resonant signatures. A magickian who is creative, imaginative and young at heart can technically relive every childhood dream, be a living part of every storybook or fairytale he/she/they can come up with, possibilities are endless. Pop-culture pagans and magickians will also find infinite potential and inspiration in the Bedlam realms. It is a true engine of creation for artists also especially painters and writers.

Mental plane

The next planar layer in this presentation is the mental plane. In this planar layer, real is a bit more tangible than in the astral planes. Astral constructs of any kind found here have denser mana patterns. The mana flow, the breath of life of the mental planes is also thicker, feels like syrupy resistance in the astral space one goes through. The high celestial realms, the akashic records, the womb of stars, the mirror gates, and the summerlands are some of the realms of interest. The mental plane is known to philosophers and occultists as a place often reached thru initiatory sicknesses, near death experiences(NDEs), deep bouts of awareness during astral travel, or thru the use of different sacred plants and hallucinogens. It can also be entered using Tantra, Kundalini Yoga, particular intense BDSM pain sessions, body suspension rituals or ritualized multi-orgasmic responses. A very unique particularity of the mental plane is that the method of entry influences the resonance attributed to the visitor and thus which realms within the mental planar layer he/she/they can enter. One should always be mindful of this fact when choosing a method whether the ones proposed above or others of the operator's choosing. The mental plane does not have clear zones or delimitations like some of the other planar layers mentioned in this text. Just as the lower astral regions it does however reflect inwards to the visitor's innercosms. Upon entrance through the mental plane with gateway leading within, the magickian may explore his shadow consciousness, make deals or coerce his/her/their inner daemons, explore inner worlds, use pathworkings to achieve illumination, live deep journeys by re-enacting a mythic scene such as Inanna's descent to the underworld or Woden's hanging from his own spear on Yggdrasil.

Spirit plane

The spirit planes are reached by the complete or partial detachment of one's silver chord tethered spirit body from the operator's physical vessel. In the spirit time passes very slowly, accelerating only when the planar layer is bent by sudden ripples such as those caused by mass trauma to the Earth's luminiciferous ether(Lodge, Sir O.-the Ether of space). Wars, massive death tolls from plagues, natural catastrophes, unexpected stellar events, concussive universe cataclysms, unusually powerful magicks, miracles, and quantum events are examples of global calamities which have happened and that do happen every day of the week at a rather loose though varying frequency. In the spirit realms, spirits, archspirits, deities, daemons, archons, angels, archangels, exist each in their own oddly overlapping regions. Some of these zone boundaries vary according to cultural, religious, historical, folkloric or geographical factors all over the bent surface of the horizons delimited the edges of the material layers. Sights of note include Sheol, the Infernal Reaches, parts of the holy lands of Avalon, as well as the Egyptian god city, Heliopolis. There is much to see in the spirit planar layers. There are just as many uses for the wise magus to extrapolate from such places. Using the spirit planes as a conduit, adept spiritwalkers may send their spirit into the body of an incarnate being from any outer world, put his spirit into form of comatose trance, take over the body of the being and drive the meat suit until he/she/they choose to return to their own vulnerable vessel in their world of origin. Few magicks are ever cast from the spirit planes even by advanced operators of the occult arts. The major detractor is that magickian have a hard time just reaching the spirit planes, casting with a spirit body is possible, it is just impractical. It is avoided whenever possible, unless a specific far reaching spells like some specific necromantic workings, a psychopomp spell, or a black mirror gateway spell, demand it.

Emotional plane

Once reffered to in another of my articles, the Sea of Emotions, also called the emotional planar layer, is our next subject up for exploration. Associated with water and fluidity, it is a place where endless empathic energies coalesce into an horizon spanning expanse. It is quite a sight to behold. Beauty rarely crossed while exploring other worlds. It is a poisonous double edged sword that can feel as good or as horrible as the tides that turn in the stormy seas. There is no real way to predict the sway of the waves here. Only madness can ensue, especially for an unprepared empath that enters the emotional plane. The prepared traveler will take the time necessary to meditate and focus before any visit to the seas of emotions is undertaken. Other magickal techniques may be applied such as purification baths or telluric grounding thru standing meditation when there is a slight breeze in the air. This stability and balance can only serve to protect the visitor from the sheer burden of his/her/their emotions coming in contact with the unpredictable and crushing storm all around them when he/she/they visit this plane. There are very few if any landmarks to speak of here. It is a plane that felt, experienced, interacted with surely but not in the way our nerves react to matter we hold in our hands in the material plane. Words fail to fully communicate the full bodied all-entrancing feeling of coming neutral into the sea of emotions to abandon oneself for a quick swim. It is such a liberating feeling. It is indescribable beyond that which I have just offered. The emotional planes also serve as an endless supply of such energies which can be tapped using circle and line magick and used as a well of wyrd to fuel a particularly demanding working or to empower a very powerful crafted talisman.

Ethereal plane

The Global Ether Field, essentially the aura of the planet Earth, has an analogous planar layer to it's name. It is associated with the upper part of the neo-pagan pentagram, the element of spirit or ether, as the modern case may be in such fields. The ethereal plane from within seems to be a manifest expression of all the aforementioned other planar layers meeting on a singular layered expanse. Everything here feels so real that dreaming in color holds no comparison point. All five senses are hyperstimulated, empathy turns to hypersensitivity, the clair-sensitives will be drowned in information. As within the bounds of the emotional plane, it is recommended to prepare before venturing to this layer realm; dynamic balance is a tool for survival. This plane is relevant to fairy kins who may sometimes feel dissociative, etherated from their incarnated vessel and their immediate reality. Without getting into the exact metaphysics of this, suffice it to say that the fae means ties a fairy in part to the ethereal plane. Focused meditation daily may greatly reduce the general malaise of this feeling. Some travelers to the ethereal planes have reported to me that out of all the planes mentioned in this article, it is the most caustic on the traveler energy-wise. Those, including myself who have tried using dream spell, REM state meditation, or a lucid traning to access it return drained unless they immediately ground the extra stress or feed on a ready source of energy upon re-entering his/her/their vessel. Ether is a dense form of mana flow that feels like a mixture of dreamstuff and spirit matter only smokier. Ether can be manipulated from the ethereal form into anything even created life patterns that can be made to gain sentience in the ethereal planes or when pure ether is conjured out through a singularity and realigned thru a well of wyrd circle. It has also been suggested that ether can be trapped within the material matrix of a crafted talisman but that is an article on its own.

The Lifestream

Within the models of planar cosmology, the Lifestream is the initial spark of light from when all worlds first appeared eons ago. Just as the void first covered the deep and has its own point of initiation referred to in Norse mythos as Ginnungagap, the Lifestream is the first light, the first breath of life or universal chi. Others would refer to it as the source of Tao. The body of light of the egyptian model of the seven souls can travel directly to the Lifestream. This state can be achieved through the practice of a ritual like the "Middle pillar ritual" followed by a pathworking meditation. In the open context of sacred sexuality, the lifestream can be tapped and its energies redirected through the proper accumulator type circles using line magicks and magnetized salts. This can empower any kinds of rites and spells using sex magick as a system. The life blood of the stream can be likewise tapped for healing spells, trauma or trigger removal spells. If a green poppet is used along with an astral cloning spell to act as an energy redirection syphon, healing spells can be sped up so to speaks. The time required for the manifestation of results in the material plane being greatly reduced. The lifestream can be used to tap into past life incarnation, reliving the "script of each life" backwards as if he/she/they were experiencing them for the first time. The latter kind of voyage can leave one mentally scarred without the proper preparations and this cannot be stressed enough as reliving the moments of death in reverse along with the shock of each birth at the passing of incarnation can be a foundational shock to the mind. The identity complex and the sense of self of the traveler can be greatly shaken by the experience as well. It is recommended that meditation, ritual diet changes even periods of lucing trancing be used to reinforce the body of light for this kind of operation. The Lifestream can also be used to bless or curse the birth of a child years before it is ever born by tethering a filter construct to the stream with the child's true name embodied within the sigil. This can be useful even for modernized rites of wiccaning.

Elemental planes

The elemental planes are a complex web of intersecting realms within the same layer realms. Each element has its own indistinguishably thin layer of reality to it. But within that thin strip of reality another infinite tapestry of realms exist occupying cogent space layers of sorts. The denizens and the realms here are divided in a similarly strange way within intersecting hierarchical structures, intricate systems of laws, and governing bodies of archspirits and elemental lords, powerful nature deities of great influence in the elemental planes in general. Kingdoms and courts of fire, water, air, and earth co-exist peacefully alongside other governing bodies such as the higher courts of nature spirits(dryads, vaneer spirits, naturae lords). Like the Seas of Emotions or the Lifestream, the different elemental planar layer realms can be tapped, their energies redirected to feed a ritual of the proper elements or to fuel the injured material/spiritual body of a subject according to many factors including magick resonance and possibly details like kin types in certain cases. Elemental energies can be tapped to fill the pattern of spirit focus object or a crafted talisman for later use in a spell. One may also choose to astral travel directly to one of the elemental planar layers to experience its paradigmal affinities and correspondences or to help a student learning the arts to practice the appropriate elemental divination. There is much untapped potential in these layer realms that magickians in general have yet to discover or experience first hand in their practice.

The Abbyssal Reaches

The Abbyss, with the first void, Ginnungagap at its primordial center, is the place from whence all worlds, all light and darkness, even source of life ever came from. It is a cold, dreadful, windy place populated by death lords, abyssal shades and unimaginable horrors that rend the mind into madness with one look. It is preferable to travel here very lightly and only when it is absolutely necessary. This thick, hollow resonant field, emanating from it as a planar layer is caustic, stagnant and a bit dangerous. It is however the perfect dumping ground for toxic or negative energies that need to be disposed with at the end of a dark working. It is also a great cosmic pool of potentia for entropic energies. Such energies are of particular interest to sorcerer who can use them to power curses, produce cursed talismans or to empower their enchantments according to their nature. The Abyssal reaches in the planar cosmology model are at the bottom center, the very middleground of this, and every other universe including the Otherside. Here shadows are men and men are the memories of shadows. The mind of a visitor can be plagued with catatonia inducing nightmares for weeks even months for a prolonged exposure to the tainted hollow energies of the Deep. This place is also referenced in holy religious texts from major world religions like the Christian Bible, calling it the "Bottomless Pit" in the "Revelation of Saint John".

The Underworld - The world of ancestors

The underworlds, the dead planar layers are the final footnote to this long article. They represent on their own an intermingled expanse including the purgatories, the hells, the deadlands, the shadow realms, the mirror realms and thousands of other such dark visions. But within their limits and boundaries is also counted the venerable and sacrosanct world of the ancestor spirits. The latter is praised and worshiped by most tribal shamanistic traditions as well as by most Diaspora religions including modern traditions such as Louisiana Hoodoo. The underworld is also the playground of the necromancer who interacts without a second thought with the spirits of the dead during the course of his/her/their practice. The energies of the underworld can be used to trap a spirit or a ghost within a prepared spirit trap like a medium sized quartz crystal. It is necessary that any visitor to the nether regions of the Underworld be aware of the nature of the dead energies found therein. A living pattern such as that of a human being can be harmed, weakened even killed by prolongued exposure. That is why some necromancer get sick so easily, why some even show chronic condition like bone disease or weakness to injury. The underworld is a place where the souls of the dead as well as an entire list of ancient and powerful entities reside, not always so peacefully. Like the spirit planes, the planar layers of the underworld seem to be delimited by the culture, spirituality, social context, paradigm, history and evolution of the realms encountered. Paradigmal characteristics here serve as markers to find the realms one wants to visit to preferably reduce the time spent here.